book talks, story times, crafts, experiments, and fun ideas for librarians, teachers, and kids of all ages

10.11.2011

Make Your Own Origami Yoda

Back in March, I wrote about Tom Angleberger's awesome Origami Yoda promotion, through which I acquired this super-cool signed-by-the-author origami Yoda

and this rad illustration.

My Yoda already made two guest appearances in book talks! In August, my friend borrowed him to give a talk about the book--one of twenty chosen this year for the Texas Bluebonnet Reading List--to the librarians in our school district. Then, last week, Yoda co-starred with me in this interview video, which I used to promote the book, and our upcoming book fair, to my students.

The script is available from the Scholastic Canada Book Fair site. It can also be read by a pair of students. If you want to skip the acting and get straight to building excitement about the novel, check out Scholastic's teaser video.

The book ties in perfectly with Scholastic's fall book fair theme this year: To the Book Fair and Beyond! As we prepare for our fair at the end of this month, my classes are focusing on fiction and non-fiction portrayals of outer-space. Since this book features a famous fictional space traveler, it was a fun story to kick off the theme with my 3rd-5th grade students. After the book teaser, students got a chance to make their own origami Yoda using the simple, one-page tutorial from the Origami Yoda blog.

There are also instructions for more detailed Yodas as well as other Star Wars favorites.

If you plan to share Angleberger's novel with your students, also check out this fun idea.

This Vintage Chica used a clever turn of phrase to turn origami Yoda into Valentine notes. The green, not-mushy nature of the geeky-in-a-good-way cards means they're perfect encouragements to send any time of year. Students could make them for each other, substituting pal or friend or homey for Valentine.